Facebook Builds New Team For Its VR Business, Metaverse

JAKARTA - Facebook will again expand its business, by creating a new team to work on "metaverse", which will be under the virtual reality or VR division.

"You can think of the metaverse as the embodiment of the internet, not just looking at the content, you're going to be in it," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Being a digital world, the Metaverse is a place where users can switch devices and communicate in a virtual environment. According to Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth, the metaverse team will be part of the Facebook virtual reality group, and Reality Labs.

“Today Portal and Oculus can move you into rooms with other people, regardless of physical distance, or into new virtual worlds and experiences. But in order to achieve our full vision of the Metaverse, we also need to build connective tissue between these spaces -- so that you can break down physical barriers and move between them as easily as moving from one room in your house to another. ," said Bosworth.

Vishal Shah, the executive in charge of products at Instagram, was also among those joining Facebook's new metaverse group.

Companies and technology executives are starting to increasingly discuss building the metaverse as a successor technology for smartphones and the mobile internet. Generally, technologists think of the metaverse as a virtual world where large numbers of people can gather to play, work, and socialize.

Metaverse is closely related to virtual reality and augmented reality technologies currently being developed by Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft in addition to Facebook. Roblox, the game targeted at children whose parent company is worth more than $44 billion, is often considered an example of a metaverse.

Some time ago, Facebook was investing heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality. The company already makes hardware including the Oculus VR headset and is still opting for a range of plans such as AR glasses and wearables.

Facebook has also purchased several VR-based game studios, including BigBox VR. The social media giant believes that in the next five years, if things go well, they will be known as a metaverse company, not social media anymore. This was quoted from CNBC International, Wednesday, July 28.